Magazine

The Security issue

September/October 2025

Security can mean national defense, but it can also mean control over data, safety from intrusion, and so much more. This issue explores the way technology, mystery, and the universe itself affect how secure we feel in the modern age.

Read the issue

Letter from the editor

AI comes for the job market, security, and prosperity: The Debrief

Greg Smallwood

Features

Categorized in Space
How these two brothers became go-to experts on America’s “mystery drone” invasion
Two Long Island UFO hunters have been called upon by some domestic law enforcement to investigate unexplained phenomena.
Categorized in Policy
Why Trump’s “golden dome” missile defense idea is another ripped straight from the movies
President Trump has proposed building an antimissile “golden dome” around the United States. But do cinematic spectacles actually enhance national security?
Categorized in Space
Inside the hunt for the most dangerous asteroid ever
As space rock 2024 YR4 became more likely to hit Earth than anything of its size had ever been before, scientists all over the world mobilized to protect the planet.
Categorized in Policy
Taiwan’s “silicon shield” could be weakening
Semiconductor powerhouse TSMC is under increasing pressure to expand abroad and play a security role for the island. Those two roles could be in tension.
Categorized in Biotechnology and health
2025 Innovator of the Year: Sneha Goenka for developing an ultra-fast sequencing technology
Her computations allow physicians to more quickly diagnose and treat life-threatening genetic diseases.

Also in this issue
- India is using robots to clean sewer pipes so humans no longer have to
  Efforts to eliminate a dangerous hands-on approach to sanitation are moving slowly.
  
  Categorized in Culture
- How lidar measures the cost of climate disasters
  Lidar data allows the identification of more subtle consequences of a disaster, including fault line shifts, volcanic eruptions, and mudslides.
  
  Categorized in Climate change and energy
- 3 Things James O’Donnell is into right now
  AI reporter James O’Donnell embraces media that isn't AI-created.
  
  Categorized in Culture
- Apple AirPods : a gateway hearing aid
  The hearing aid features first available on Apple's AirPods Pro 2 are a good start to democratizing a crucial technology.
  
  Categorized in Culture
- Job titles of the future: Satellite streak astronomer
  At the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, Meredith Rawls makes sure reflected sunlight doesn’t ruin astronomical observations by the world’s newest sky-observing super-machine.
  
  Categorized in Space
- Material Cultures looks to the past to build the future
  Paloma Gormley is leading Material Cultures, which has a DIY approach to material sustainability in architecture, to build the future from the ground up.
  
  Categorized in Profile
- Why we should thank pigeons for our AI breakthroughs
  The bird has never gotten much credit for being intelligent. But the reinforcement learning powering the world’s most advanced AI systems is far more pigeon than human.
  
  Categorized in Artificial intelligence
- The case against humans in space
  Three books push back on a rising tide of optimism about space settlements.
  
  Categorized in Book Review
- Indigenous knowledge meets artificial intelligence
  These contemporary Native artists are reimagining relationships between technology, memory, and resistance.
  
  Categorized in Field notes
- The AI Hype Index: The White House’s war on “woke AI”
  MIT Technology Review’s highly subjective take on the latest buzz about AI.
  
  Categorized in Artificial intelligence

Updated

Magazine

The Security issue

Letter from the editor

Features

How these two brothers became go-to experts on America’s “mystery drone” invasion

Why Trump’s “golden dome” missile defense idea is another ripped straight from the movies

Inside the hunt for the most dangerous asteroid ever

Taiwan’s “silicon shield” could be weakening

2025 Innovator of the Year: Sneha Goenka for developing an ultra-fast sequencing technology

India is using robots to clean sewer pipes so humans no longer have to

How lidar measures the cost of climate disasters

3 Things James O’Donnell is into right now

Apple AirPods : a gateway hearing aid

Job titles of the future: Satellite streak astronomer

Material Cultures looks to the past to build the future

Why we should thank pigeons for our AI breakthroughs

The case against humans in space

Indigenous knowledge meets artificial intelligence

The AI Hype Index: The White House’s war on “woke AI”

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